Love and Loss
by Hillside Dancing On
Summary: 188 was a killer. But what made him insane? It had to do with the experiment he loved but was forced to give up...a prequel to Survive the Night.
1. Could it be love?

_I'll try to make the sun shine brighter for you _

_I will even play the fool if it makes you smile _

_I'll try to make you laugh if there's a tear in your eye _

_After all is said _

After all is done 

_I'd do anything for you _

_Come with me, close your eyes _

_Hold my hand, it'll be alright _

_Don't be scared, don't be shy _

_Lift your head it's gonna be alright._

_(Phil Collins, Come with Me)_

          Experiment 188 snarled. He'd lost count of how many times he'd done that today, but he guessed it's number was higher then his own. The room that served as a prison for unmanageable experiments was always boring, but today it was worse than ever. Usually Jumba took him out into the lab and made him show his abilities. Or he'd be strapped to a table and examined like a piece of meat. But today, 188 would gladly have taken one. There was absolutely nothing to do in the glass cage! Of course, he could have a conversation with the experiment in the cage next to him. Or plot ways to torture 147. But he'd already done the latter and chose boredom over the former.

         188 finally settled on banging his head against the glass. Just as he was starting to forget his own name, the door to the room opened. Caged experiments began growling.

         "Jumba," 188 said to himself.

         Sure enough, the four eyed alien scientist entered the room. He was carrying something that he put in the cage next to 188's. 

        "I'd keep you in a safer place, but these are the only cages open. Don't talk to any of these expiriments-they are in here for a reason," Jumba told the thing. He shot a glance at 188 as he said that. Then he left.

          188 peered into the cage. It was an experiment that had the standard body shape but was otherwise completely different. 188 felt a tug at his heart that he hoped was from experimental drugs Jumba gave him.

         The new experiment was royal blue with aqua blue stomach fur. Instead of big bat ears, she had light blue fin-crests on either side of her head. Her eyes were sea blue. Instead of four arms, she only had two. In place of the second pair were things 188 almost mistook for wings before he realized they were fins. The creature's feet and paws were webbed. Her tail was of the long, piscean mermaid variety. A jagged light blue ridge ran down her back. Just beneath the fur on her neck she had gills. Only an idiot couldn't see she was made for water. Then she caught sight of 188.

         "Oh, hello. Who are you?" Even her voice sounded like water, 188 thought! Water rippling over the stones in a brook, water lapping against the shore on a beach...

          'What are you thinking, you imbecile? You don't think about brooks and waves and whatnot! You usually think of ways to blind and torture everyone under this lab's roof!' He struggled to compose himself.

          "I'm Experiment 188. What number are you?" he asked, even though he could see it on her collar.

          "I'm Experiment 189."

         A second later, 188 was rudely yanked out of the world he was in. Literally. A huge hand grabbed the back of his collar and started dragging him out of the cage room. Jumba had returned and 188 mentally smacked himself for not waiting to be sure he was gone. Instead of twisting around and trying to sink his fangs into flesh, he waved sadly to the female experiment in the cage, wondering why Jumba didn't just let him walk out with dignity. He got his answer in the hall.

         "189 is my first attempt at a vater fighter. You stay avay from her!"

         "Ih..." 188 snarled. Jumba mistook it for the alien word for yes-in reality it was a sound of disgust.

                                   **************************************

         188's training that day was harder than ever, the level cranked up to 30. Jumba seemed to be TRYING to get his mind off of 189. It was working...somewhat.

         One of the things that made 188 so dangerous (but until a half a year later when an experiment was killed, Jumba didn't know how dangerous) was that he liked blood. It was also making Jumba doubt his successfulness as a tool of war. 188 had no interest in destroying machines. He liked to actually take lives, to feel blood in his mouth, to dye his black fur crimson with it. It was instinctual.

         As 188 was killing a simulated alien, he was thinking about that.

        "Then why don't I feel it when I look at 189?" 

        to be continued...


	2. Oh yeah, it's love

_I never had no one that I could count on_

_I've been let down so many times_

I was tired of hurtin' 

_So tired of searchin'_

_Till you walked into my life_

_It was a feelin' I'd never known_

_And for the first time, I didn't feel alone_

_(Tim Mcgraw, My Best Friend)_

Disclaimer: You know what I own and don't. I'm not even gonna bother.

        Jumba wasted no time in training 189. Before dawn, he came to wake her up and haul her out of the cage room. The other caged experiments were still asleep but 188 was at the front of his cage, watching them go past. 

       'Stupid four eyed tub of lard, making an experiment go to training on her second day of life,' he thought. It didn't occur to him that he'd started training on his first day. In fact, he hadn't even completely recovered from the dart he'd been shot with four minutes after his birth! 188 added another reason to torture Jumba if he ever got the opportunity.

       As she passed by, the aquatic experiment smiled at him and it took him a minute to realize the pounding of his heart wasn't Jumba shocking him again.

       He spent the rest of the day pacing, waiting for her to come back. The only interruption was Experiment 147 coming in to annoy him. His thoughts had been on 189 for the last two days, he hadn't been able to appreciate her absence.

      "So, you've got a thing for that new experiment?"

      "No, go away."

      147 smiled wickedly. "Good. I think she's ugly-uglier than you!" 188's muscles visibly tensed but he didn't say anything, so 147 carried her little experiment further. "She's got those weird gills and she smells like fish. I hope she's one of the ones that get sent-"

      188 attacked, forgetting the glass wall separated them. He raked his long claws along it, making a horrible screeching sound.

      "If you say anything bad about her, I'll pull your arms off and wear them for scarves!"

 147 didn't seem to care that she was being threatened. She just grinned as if it proved her point and left.

                                   ************************************

          189 came back that afternoon.

        "So how did it go?" was the first thing out of 188's mouth.

        189 had did decently on land, but in water she proved to be a killer. She'd wiped out every underwater tracker-robot. Jumba had taken her up a whole level to shooting-robots. She'd dodged the shots and taken them all out. Out of things to destroy, she'd started going after the virtual fish put in to throw her off.

        "I'm starving. Do they feed us at all?" she inquired.

        188 nodded and pointed to a slot in the wall. "In about three...two...one..."

        There was a series of clinks. A bowl of food dropped into each cage through the slot. Jumba had installed the automatic feeder to cut his workload-after making sure the experiments couldn't get in or out of the cages through the slots. The food was a series of different colored pellets and a slab of green meat from a trog-a disgusting, filthy animal native to Turo who's meat was equally disgusting and filthy. All the experiments had their own theory about what it looked like. It was only fed to prisoners, orphans, and illegal genetic experiments.

        "_Shyea_, Jumba doesn't look like he has to eat trog meat," 188 muttered. 189 laughed and the black experiment's heart started beating crazily again. But then 189's voice became sad.

        "You know, he told me not to talk to you."

        "Then why does he put you in the cage next to mine?"

        189 sighed. "That's the point. He says I can leave the cage tomorrow morning and live in the lab with the other experiments." 

        188 tried to hide his misery. He knew that once experiments were loose, they lost interest in the ones that were caged. The most he'd see of 189 would probably be while being taken for training or testing. 

                                     ********************************

       188 woke a few mornings later to a tapping on his cage. He grumbled angrily. It was already promising to be a bad day, like always. What made it unbearable was knowing he wouldn't see 189 in the next cage when he opened his eyes.

      "147, I'm not in the mood so why don't you just go and eat-"

      "188, it's me!"  

      He jumped up and sure enough, saw the smiling blue face of 189. He'd never expected her to come back!   

     "I missed you!" 

     "I missed you too." She sat down beside his cage. "I was talking to the other experiments. They told me you're evil."

      188s good mood instantly fell. "So did you just come to tell me you're never coming again?" 

      "You're too pessimistic. For all I know, you are evil. But I've talked to you over the past few days and I like you a lot," she said. "That's why I'm going to keep coming back to see you."

      She kept her promise. For a few months, she'd come to talk to 188 through the glass. Every time he wanted to get out more and more. 

      But not for the reasons he used to.

     to be continued...

     Short, as usual. But I'm kind of rushing to get through this. All right. Here's my dilemma. I have two different chapters made. One is a lemon. The other isn't. Unless enough people want the lemon chapter, I'm going to use the other one. What do you think? 


	3. Passion and Consequences

I'm back! No, I haven't fallen down a well, been enslaved on a planet ruled by apes, or joined the witness relocation program.  

Author's note: I've decided not to write the lemon. It just doesn't seem to fit in with this fic.  

Disclaimer: If I owned Lilo and Stitch, the series wouldn't have that "one place where you belong" crap. But I do own 188, 189, and 002.  

NOTE TO THE GREAT RED DRAGON1: No, 188 isn't acting very vicious. Remember, this takes place a long time ago. WAY before Survive the Night. 188 was different back then. 189 isn't supposed to be vicious. 

 *********************************************

_I never liked the rain till' I walked through it with you_

_Every thunder cloud that came was one more I might not get through_

_On the darkest day there's always light and now I see it too_

_But I never liked the rain till' I walked through it with you_

(Clint Black, Like the Rain)

                 'You do realize what you've just done, right?' the little voice in 188's head nagged him. He recognized it. It was called Conscience and the little bastard had been screaming at him all night not to do what he'd just done. But 188 could always silence Conscience and this time was no different. 189 had found a key early that night and let 188 out of his prison. Instead of trying to escape as logic dictated, they'd gone right back inside.

           Luckily there were only two experiments in the other cages and both were mindless destroying machines with the combined IQ of a lettuce leaf. They couldn't talk, let alone spy.

           Conscience was saying something about Jumba finding out, and something else about how disgusting he was-sleeping with an experiment he just met two months ago. 188 didn't really care. He glanced at 189 lying beside him. Two of his arms were loosely draped over her, and one of her paws still hung onto his chest fur. Their tails were entwined. 

           188 sighed into her neck. Since they'd met, he'd been dying to see what her fur felt and smelled like. It was just like he'd imagined-like sea water with a hint of sunshine underneath it. Which was strange since 188 had never smelled the sea or been in the sunlight. 

         Now that she'd fallen asleep, 188 closed his eyes to do the same. It would be a while before he'd have to sneak back into his cage. For once in his life, everything seemed perfect.

         There was no way anyone would ever know.

         Neither had any idea how the events of that night would alter both their lives-for the worst.

                                        **********************

         **_"188!!!"_**

       From the tone of Jumba's scream and the way he was walking with a deliberate stamp, 188 could tell one of two things had happened. Either their secret had finally been discovered, or a nuclear war had started.  

      The scientist's face had darkened several shades of purple, and he was panting furiously. 188 was sure he was going have a heart attack right then and there. 

      "You," Jumba sputtered, pointing a shaking finger at his experiment, who just smiled coolly up at him. "This is worst thing you've ever done! I TOLD YOU TO STAY AVAY FROM 189!!"

      188 shrugged, his face the picture of innocence. "Me? What did I do? I haven't seen 189 in weeks!" It wasn't a complete lie. It had been two weeks since that night, and she hadn't come to visit him-something that had him worried.

       Jumba slammed his fist into the reinforced glass, seemingly oblivious to any pain. "Don't be playing dumb! You know vhat I am talking about."

        188 gave up his lie. "Yes, I do. Go ahead. Shock me."

        "This isn't something I shock you for and forget about. You slept vith her!" To his surprise, 188 laughed. 

     "There was very little sleeping involved, Jumba."

     For once, 188 was glad to be locked up. If the glass hadn't been separating them, Jumba surely would have snapped his neck. 

      "Do you realize how serious this is? 189 is pregnant!"

       188s smirk vanished. Instead, his face took on a look of shock, his jaw dropping. _Pregnant? "Are you sure?" _

        "Is usually the case when she's eating salami covered in honey and throwing up in morning." For a split second, it looked like he was going to smile. 

         "Let me see her," 188 commanded.

         "No."

          "What?" 

          "Are you deaf? I said no!"

          "Tie me, shock me, bring her here, I don't care how you do it. Just let...me see...189." 188's voice dropped to a tone that said "I'd love to rip out your vital organs, but I'm controlling myself to get what I want." Jumba shook his head, almost enjoying 188's desperation.

         "002 is taking care of her. Usually an experiment pup vould be joyous occasion-problem is, you are it's father and you are dangerous! So you vill not see 189 and you vill not talk to her."

          "I have the right to see my own mate!" 188 yelled. 

          "Just be thankful I am not neutering you with kitchen fork." 

          188 winced involuntarily. Distressing him seemed to help Jumba's mood, and he left. He had another punishment in mind. Also, an experiment pup on the way-even if it was related to 188-was a cause for celebration. This was going to be interesting.                                                                         

                                                              ********************************

            Experiment 002 was one of the oldest in the lab, both in age and temperament.  She was like a mother or grandmother to the experiments. Sometimes they came to her with problems, and 002 considered it her duty to help them. But she'd never dealt with something like this before. As much as it shocked her who 189 had been seeing, 002 knew the last thing she needed was to be lectured. 

          After talking with 002, 189's fears about herself were relived, if not erased. She knew that she was Jumba's first water experiment and that he considered her too valuable to kill. Besides, he placed the blame solely on 188 and for that, 189 was annoyed with him. She heard stories about how 188 had crippled 187 and left him traumatized. How he'd butcher anyone who got too close, play with your mind to make you let him out.

         'But I let him out and I'm still alive,' 189 thought. She trusted him completely. And contrary to what everyone said, he hadn't seemed like a killer at all. He'd been gentle with her, as if she'd break under fear or pain.

          Why did Jumba treated him horribly. 

         That brought up another worry to her already strained mind. When this pup was born, how would Jumba treat it? No doubt he'd already decided it had 188's instinct to kill, even before it had formed a brain. 189 knew that most likely, he'd toss it in a cage and strap a shock collar around it's neck. It was a sickening thought, but she didn't put it past him.

         With a sigh, 189 her claws through her stomach fur, speaking to the pup inside.

           "You might have been conceived in a cage, but I won't let you live in one."

                                                                                         *******************************************

          A few days later, she managed to sneak into the cage ward for the first time in two weeks. She noticed Jumba had replaced the standard lock with a high tech one, one that needed his handprint to open the cage. 

          189 rapped on the reinforced glass, whispering 188's name urgently. There was a stirring in the darkness, and the next second he was against the glass. 

        "Is it true?" he whispered.

        189 nodded grimly. "Yeah. But don't look so excited just yet." She told him her horrible theory.

         When she finished, 188's paw drifted to the collar around his neck, threatening him with it's very presence. The thought of their child growing up with it, living like he did...

         "We've got to get out of here."

         to be continued...


	4. How can I tell you goodbye?

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch or anything that deals with it. But I still own 188 and own 189, until Disney decides to snatch them away for their stupid series.

_So you 're leaving in the morning on the early train  
I could say everything's alright  
And I could pretend and say goodbye  
But that would be lying  
  
Cause I can't stop loving you  
No I can't stop loving you  
No I won't stop loving you  
Why should I even try?  
_(Phil Collins, Can't Stop Loving You. My mom loves this song, so I promised her I'd use it.)

         All day and half of the night, 188 paced his cage. He would occasionally stop to look down the hall or nervously drum his claws on the glass before resuming his pacing. Although he would never admit it, he was terrified. Dreaming of escaping was one thing; going through with it was another. They had no real plan-and 188 knew if they were caught, their punishment would be too horrible for even his violent mind to imagine. 

        Sometime near midnight, 189 snuck in. Luckily the touchpad was cheaply made and all she had to do was smack it hard enough.

        The experiments looked up at their only route to freedom--the air vents. Quickly and silently, 188 climbed the wall and wrenched the grate off. He tossed it down to 189, who set it down gently before following 188 up the wall and into the darkness of the vents. It was ironic that the hours of training Jumba had given his experiments was now working against him.

       It seemed there was nothing but a long, narrow corridor keeping 188 and 189 from freedom, happiness, and a new life together.

         Halfway through, with the scent of fresh air close ahead, they finally decided it was safe to talk.

        "So where are we going?" 188 asked.

        "I've been reading Jumba's atlas books. There's a planet called Keehar. It's 90% water, with small islands sprinkled around it. It's got a tropical climate and no one will ever find us."      

         "I can picture it, " 188 said with a smile. He wouldn't have minded if they end up at an exploding head planet, as long as they were together.

       Thinking back, he wished he'd told her that. It would have made their last happy moments worth it. Because the next instant, something ice cold had grabbed his upper right arm.

      And it wasn't 189.

     He whirled around, ready to face whatever it was. But he saw only the endless blackness that they'd just come out of.

      "What the-"

       Something else got his lower arms, wrenching them behind his back. Howling in agony, 188 threw himself against the vent walls, bucking and rolling like the trapped animal he was. He lashed out with his tail, but it wasn't a creature that had him. It was something tentacle-like, something that could best be described as mechanical ropes. Right now, there were about seven. Another caught his ankle and he tried to lash out with his free foot. He twisted his head about, snapping his jaws in a desperate attempt to bite them. But all biting did was send waves of pain through his entire head. If one did break, three more would take its place. They bound him tightly, cutting into him like cold metal snakes. 

      'Why aren't they attacking 189?' he thought.

       His answer came in a deadly hiss. 189 came to his aid, a terrifying look on her face that he'd never seen before. Her fangs were bared and the fierce light of battle tinted her beautiful blue eyes with red. She ripped viciously at the wall where the ropes connected, ignoring the ones that coiled around her. She didn't notice that her attacks weren't helping. All she cared about was destroying this last obstacle keeping her and 188 trapped in the lab.

       188's mind raced. He knew she couldn't break them all and neither could he. It made matters worse that he ropes were sending powerful shocks through his body. A horrible feeling of hopelessness swept through him. Maybe he couldn't escape, but still 189 could. He knew what he had to do.

         He only hoped it wouldn't kill him.

        "Go." That one syllable took everything he had. "Leave me here, I'll get out later."

         "Don't be stupid. You know you're trapped," 189 said before closing her jaws around a rope.

         "189, I'm serious! If you lose this chance, you'll never get another!" 

        189 ignored him. 188 was desperate.

         "If not for yourself, do it for the pup!"

         It finally struck something in 189. She relinquished the rope in her jaws and turned to her bound companion, the painful decision's weight evident in her face. " 188, I love you. I don't want to leave you here. What will Jumba do when he finds out we tried to escape?"          
  


        "I love you too, but…" he hesitated, trying to find the words that said how he felt and convinced her to save herself. "Look, I'll be fine. I'll come find you on Keehar. Just go before those things get you!" he commanded. 189 knew what she had to do.

        Tears beginning to spill from her eyes, 189 took his face in both paws and pulled him into their final kiss. For one bittersweet moment, all thoughts of their terrible predicament died. 

       188 knew that this was their good-bye. He didn't want to say it--if he did, it would break the dam holding back his tears. And he wanted 189 to remember him this way, not helplessly wrapped up in ropes and bawling hysterically. He took the memory of her lips against his, the last time they'd touch, in that moment when time stood still and locked it away deep inside himself. It took another jolt of pain brought him back to reality.

       "Go," he told her again.

       189 nodded and stepped back, taking once last look at him. Then she turned and bolted. The last thing 188 ever saw of her was a flash of blue, her tail fins being swallowed by the darkness. He heard the smack of her paws against the steel floor as they carried her away with him unable to follow. Then the sound vanished and with it, all traces of the experiment he loved. 

          His beloved 189, who he'd wanted more then anything the day he saw her. The only thing he ever wanted. The dreams of escaping and living freely by her side were gone, leaving him staring into the infinite blackness of the vent. 

         Finally going slack in his bonds, 188 let the tears flow. He felt the ropes alternately shocking and cutting into him, but didn't care. 

        The burning fire in his body was almost sweet compared to the breaking of his heart.

                                                                              *****************************

         Some hours later, the ropes dragged his limp form backwards and out of the vent, to where Jumba was waiting. He didn't seem angry at 188's escape attempt. In fact, he seemed eerily cheerful.

        "So, you've discovered new security system, eh? Is designed for to stop burglars. I KNEW you would be escapink through vents!"

        188 was only half conscious, but turned his head slowly towards his creator. The look in it frightened Jumba far more then if 188 had been trying to attack him. His eyes were normally full of bloodlust. Now they just stared blankly, void of any feeling. Where there'd once been dark purple was now red...like he'd been crying.

       'No. 188 does not cry. I designed him to have no emotions.'

       "Please, let me go. As my creator, free me or let me die," 188 said. His deep gravelly voice now a hoarse whisper, wounded from ropes and sorrow. Jumba ignored him. Instead he carefully moved forward to untie him.  "I should have known. You say I'm your greatest creation yet, but you won't give me the one thing I need most." 

       Jumba didn't bother asking what that was. His full concentration was on releasing 188 without getting killed. 

       "Don't be tryink anything funny. You're weak, it vill only take vone shock to knock you out," he warned as the last rope retracted with a snap back into the walls.

        188 shook his head. He didn't try to attack, just sat with his head hanging low. "I'm not going to kill you. But mark my words; I swear I'll escape some time. And when I do, you'll know what I felt." 

         The tone of his voice was dripping with hate, but at the same time mocking him. Jumba found it too creepy for his liking. With one press of the button, the collar sizzled and 188 slid into the merciful depths of unconsciousness.

                                                                                                ***********************

          188 never really woke up. Oh sure, physically he had. But the cynical, rebellious part of him was dead. Only the vicious, bloodthirsty, hate-filled part remained. 

         When he met 189, his life of boredom and testing suddenly became a lot brighter. When things were their worst, he could always look forward to her visits. The sight of her face had lifted his spirits.

        And now she was gone forever. Without her, 188's days seemed even longer and emptier then before. He lived with the constant knowledge that this misery would never end. Even the thought of 189 being safe and free in the warm oceans of Keehar brought him no consultation.

         At first he spent the days and nights curled up in the corner of his cage, replaying the scene in his mind over and over. Knowing he'd lost her forever, and that he'd never see his pup. It was like having deep wounds that never healed being repeatedly splashed with salt water. 

       He wished for oblivion.

       Often, he cut and bit himself just to feel something besides loneliness. But inflicting pain on his own body wasn't enough. He wanted to inflict pain on others, to make them feel the agony he felt all the time.

        189 had been his life. And without her, there was none.

      To be continued...

                           
  
     


	5. The First Taste of Blood

Disclaimer: I own 188, 147, 024, and 189. The other experiments, i.e. the ones gossiping in the beginning of the chapter, are ones I found on the Disney Channel website. Disney owns them.

_Babe, I'm leaving, I'll say it once again  
Somehow try to smile  
I know the feeling we're trying to forget  
If only for a while  
But I'll be lonely without you  
And I'll need your love to see me through  
Please believe me, my heart is in your hands  
And I'll be missing you  
Babe, I love you._

(Styx, Babe. God I love this song! I would have used it in the last chapter, but I just found out who sang it the other day.)

"This is an outrage! Jumba can't do this to us, it's just not fair!"

      "Welcome to experiment life, 147," said 024  "Nothing's ever fair."

       188 and 189's escape attempt was a complete secret.

       So within a week, every experiment in the lab knew about it.

  Normally, they wouldn't have cared much. Someone had almost escaped, but Jumba had captured them and as far as anyone cared, that was that. 

     But Experiment 188 wasn't one of the normal experiments branded "dangerous", the monsters that smacked their cages and roared unintelligibly. No one knew the extent of his powers as much as Jumba. With 188's mind clouded by grief and rage, he wasn't taking any chances.          

  So all of the experiments were implanted with tiny tracking microchips just under the skin. Some of them, like 002, didn't mind. But others, like 147, were furious. They stood around like inmates on death row, waiting for Jumba to find and chip them. 

        "But it's stupid! Just because 188 almost got out, all of us have to suffer?" 147 protested.

        "He's just doing what he thinks is best. Better safe then sorry," 024 put in.

        "024, you're my best friend and I respect you. But you're living in a magical happy world with gumdrop houses and make believe and little men in funny hats," 147 replied.

         Just then, 228 (one of the newest experiments) approached with one paw on his shoulder*. "I don't know, this might be a good idea. 188's been acting crazy ever since they caught him. Listen."

         All the experiments cocked their ears, hearing the howls of misery echoing distantly from the restricted ward.

          "And none of you pity him even a little bit?" 024 asked incredulously.

          187 gave a snort of contempt. "Pity 188? Are you blind? Look what that monster did to me!" Jagged scars ran down his face and chest, massive patches of his fur were ripped out, and he was missing an ear. 

          "But he might have changed since then! 189 always went in to talk to him, and--"

         "And she's gone now! I talked to her a couple of times. She was_ **way **_too trusting, a lot like you!" Experiment 149 warned.

        "I am not too trusting! I'm just saying that if anything turned him bad, it was everybody treating him like this! And I still don't believe 189 is dead."

        147 shrugged. "024, you think whatever you want. Just be careful."

                                                              ****************

       Unbeknownst to them, 188 was hearing every word.  

      024. 

      He'd seen her several times before, but only as 147's lackey. A little pink experiment with the power to unlock doors, she was sweet and trusting--almost too trusting.

      She was the key to 188's escape. 

      Smirking, he leaned back against the glass of his cage to continue listening. 024 would come soon. All he had to do was be patient, and he'd see 189 again.

                                                    *******************

      As predicted, 024 stuck to her theory that 188 wasn't really bad. And as also predicted, she let him out of the cage.

       188 would never forget the feeling as he killed her. He knew he'd taken 147's best friend. This would make her pay for teasing him. And 024 hadn't been strong or fierce, but she was one of Jumba's favorite experiments; a combination of a daughter and a faithful dog. She'd always trusted whatever decision he made. 

      'I told him I'd take someone he loved. Now they'll both know how I felt!' 188 thought to himself with satisfaction. 

        When he'd driven his deadly tail spike into 024's vein, time had stopped. He felt everything about her. Her heartbeat pumping blood, then stopping as venom seized it; her muscles spasming in death; and most importantly, her final thoughts, flying out in a rush.

_      'What would I have become?' 'They warned me about this!' Why didn't I listen to 147' 'Strange, it doesn't hurt...' _And finally, _'I'm so sorry, 132.' _

The last thought puzzled 188. Who was 132? Possibly someone she'd cared about? Maybe loved like he loved 189? 188 shrugged the thought off, his instincts as an assassin gripping his mind. He put 024's dead body to one last use, ridding him of the hated shock collar forever. __

He'd taken a life, not the fake kind in the training simulators, but a _real_ life. Someone who'd trusted him so much. 

       And it felt fantastic.  

       As before, he used the air vents to escape. But this time he stayed on his guard, used passageways that he hoped weren't booby-trapped. After an agonizingly slow fifteen minutes, luck turned to his side and he found the way out.

       The fresh night air hit him like a smack in the face, making him cough. It was cold and sharp, not like the climate-controlled air of the lab, and it almost burned. 

        But suddenly, with a strangled cry of delight, he threw himself onto the dirt, laughing like he was possessed. It was amazing just to feel something besides cold tiles and concrete beneath him, and the sheer novelty of it temporally overrode the fear of being caught. He buried his muzzle in the earth, inhaling the scent.

       It was the smell of freedom.

                                                                ***************************

         Problem 1. Escape from the lab. Solved.

         Problem 2. Get off the surface of the planet, fast.

         188 rushed to beat the dawn. He'd been heavily sedated two days ago when the tracking chip was implanted in him, thus he had no idea where in his body it was. Jumba had apparently guessed that he would try and tear it out. 188 knew the chips were powerful, and could locate an experiment anywhere on the planet. His only solution was to get off Turo before Jumba awoke, found him gone, and started hunting him. 

          Once again luck was with him. As little as half a mile away, he found a single alien fixing a cruiser. The alien didn't know he stood in the way of 188's freedom. In a flash of black fur, his throat was slashed and he was dead before he knew what had happened.

          Without so much as a glance at the dead alien, 188 set about stealing the cruiser. Relying on past training, he hot-wired it and drove it off into the night sky. 

          He'd done it! Jumba would never find him now. Nothing was holding him back. He felt no remorse for the two creatures he'd taken the lives of that night. The only guilt at all came from the nagging voice in the back of his head.

          '189 didn't think you were a killer. You've just proved her wrong.'

           188 shook his head, clearing the thought from his mind. He'd had to do it. Luckily, 189 would never know and he would never have to do it again.

           As if he'd flown space cruisers all his life, he expertly tapped a few buttons on the control panel and spoke to the computer.
    
            "Set coordinates for Planet Keehar."

         To be continued...

          Hopefully I'll have the last chapter up sooner. It's a lot longer, more detailed, and darker. You don't think I'd let 188 off that easy, do you?

            *implying he's just been chipped.   

         A note to Danmat6288:  Maybe I haven't implied this yet, but I hate the Lilo and Stitch TV series. Some of the experiments I like (namely Melty and Bonnie), which is why I used them in this chapter. And the episode with Yaarp was pretty funny. And Hamsterviel's adorable, so I might mention him in a story someday…ok, maybe I don't hate the series as much as I used to. But in my stories, there's no Gantu, no experiment pods, and nothing else like that. Sorry.


	6. Madness

Disclaimer: I don't own Lilo and Stitch. If you haven't figured that out by now you're stupid and I hate you.

_How can I just let you walk away, just let you leave without a trace  
When I stand here taking every breath with you, ooh  
You're the only one who really knew me at all  
  
How can you just walk away from me,  
When all I can do is watch you leave  
Cos we've shared the laughter and the pain and even shared the tears  
You're the only one who really knew me at all  
  
So take a look at me now, oh there's just an empty space  
And there's nothing left here to remind me,  
Just the memory of your face  
Ooh take a look at me now, well there's just an empty space  
And you coming back to me is against all odds and that's what I've got to face_                  (Phil Collins, Against All Odds. What can I say? Half of his songs fit 188 so perfectly.)  
  


         When the cruiser first started flying, 188 had started intently out the window for any sign of a blue planet. But as the hours racked up, so did his boredom. He'd found a rubix cube* underneath the seat, but after three minutes he'd realized why it was there in the first place and thrown it out the airlock. 

         What a mistake that was. Now there was nothing to take his mind off things. It was strange that in the lab he could wait alone in the dark for days and never feel this restless. But finally, he heard the computer say the words he'd been waiting for.

        "Planet Keehar ahead."   

        As 188 stared out the window, his anticipation turned to dread. Something was wrong. 189 had said that Keehar was 90% water. But this planet had huge patches of land, entire continents. Granted, it had a lot of ocean, but there was no way it was Keehar. 

        Apparently his ship didn't know it, and turned toward the planet.

         188 frantically turned the steering wheel, trying to divert or at least slow the cruiser's decent. It had no effect. He realized with horror that the alien he'd killed had been repairing this ship for a reason--it was obviously old, judging from the peeling paint, and must have had numerous broken parts. Desperately, 188 slammed the brakes again and again.

          "Turn damn you! Turn!"

          He was within the strange planet's atmosphere now. A blanket of green was rushing up to collide with the cruiser. Before it hit, 188 felt no fear. He knew he was going to die, but at least he'd died free and trying to get back to his family.

         Next came the scream of metal being torn, a grinding, then blackness.

                                                                                                *************************

        _Wake up..._

 A throb of pain in his head. The feeling of something soft beneath him. And the voice of instinct hissing in his ear.

        _Wake up..._

         188 groaned. Where was he? This wasn't the lab; then he remembered the crash.

          He wrenched his eyes open and was met with complete darkness. In a second, his powerful vision kicked in and the mists of night rolled away. The trees he'd last seen from the air were all around him, as were shards of thick glass. The cold wind ruffled his fur, and he heard his own heart beating.

           He was alive, but he sure as hell didn't feel like it. From nose to tail tip, everything hurt.

_           Rustle, rustle._

As if things couldn't get worse, something moved in the bushes. 188 was in no condition to fight. He simply lay still and waited for his attacker. Which, in a few seconds, revealed itself to be...

          A fluffy little creature with brown fur, big hind feet, a twitchy nose, and long ears. 188 felt annoyed with it. It looked too much like him. But as it came closer, instinct kicked in. 188 closed his eyes, not even breathing.

          The rabbit hopped over to his head without any apparent fear. After all, it had never seen any animal like this before. Maybe it was a fox, or some strange new-

            The thought was never completed. In the blink of an eye, 188's jaws had closed over the little rabbit's head, killing it instantly. Then he forced himself to eat the raw meat, practically gagging with the first bite.

             'At least the meat from the lab was cooked, even if it tasted rancid,' he thought. But he could feel his strength slowly coming back.

               Gnawing the rabbit's leg bone, he turned his thoughts to the ship. The sooner he found it, the sooner he could get off this...

              His thought was interrupted by something splashing down on his head. He tentatively laid a paw to it and looked. It was black, just barely showing up against his fur, and greasy. 

               Fuel.

             Slowly, dreading what lie above, 188 raised his head.

             Caught in the branches of some gnarled old oaks was a mass of twisted metal. Entry into this planet's atmosphere had strained the cruiser too far. The branches had become its tomb. It was horribly mangled beyond repair and with it, 188's last ounce of hope

                                                                                ************************

           For a week he stayed in the forest, trying in vain to fix the cruiser with anything he could find. But as the leaves turned brown and gold, both his supply of prey animals and patience ran out. 

           If he listened closely, he could hear the sounds of a city not too far away. The possibility of another ship there was almost more then he could take. He wanted to run right in and steal the first one he saw. But he remembered his training. There were procedures for this.

          188 hovered around the outskirts, spying on the creatures. He expected to find it bustling with various species of aliens and space cruisers, like any normal city. 

       What he found was so disappointing it sickened him. 

        It was a city, all right. But it was unbelievably primitive. It was as if they'd been living under a rock while the galaxy grew around them. They didn't have real medicines, lighting, plasma guns, anything!

       'I've lived in a dark cage my whole life and I know more then they ever will,' 188 thought to himself.

     The creatures living there--called "humans"--had no means to defend themselves, hairless and weak. They had no claws or fangs. In some ways they looked like Jumba, but much smaller and with only two eyes. They were hideous, disgusting creatures who lived in filth. Their civilization smelled like a foot.

       188 hated them from the beginning.

     There was one type of creature he didn't mind so much. These were called "dogs," as he later found out. They reminded him of Turo, of Jumba's lab, and of the experiments. And to 188, they seemed the most logical creature to disguise himself as. It wasn't hard. He simply withdrew his antennae, tail spike, foot spurs, back spines, and lower set of arms into his body. Naturally, the stupid things fell for it. As long as he stayed on all fours, he could walk the streets with ease.

        The citizens of the city had more important things to do then notice him. Nobody suspected how he'd change their lives.

                                                                 ***************************** 

           It was an early autumn night. The glare of the moon helped light the dark, foggy streets. It was business as usual. And on these streets, that "business" was usually prostitution.

          One such woman was walking briskly through the streets, cautiously looking around each corner. Her name was Elizabeth and she would have rather been safe indoors, fully aware that something had taken the lives of two other prostitutes. But it was either look for a client or go hungry, and Elizabeth did what she must. Usually on a nice night like this, there would have been at least one. But no such luck.

          Heading down one road, something caught her eye. It was a little black dog, just staring off into the shadows. Right away, the woman noticed that it was unusual. Its ears were long and hung down over the back like those of a rabbit. The dog's four paws were equipped with razor sharp claws. Its tail was long and thin. But most unsettling were those_ eyes_; dark violet eyes that pierced her own. If she didn't know any better, she would have said it looked sad and down on its luck, just like her. But then she remembered that it was just a stray dog, nothing more.

           And she didn't like the way it was looking at her. Annoyed, she pulled back a foot and kicked it hard in the side. The dog yelped in pain.

           "Shoo! Go 'way!"

           Satisfied, Elizabeth continued on her way. She didn't notice the dog rising up on his hind legs behind her, his teeth bared. Moving like lightning and with amazing strength, he had her down on the cobblestones. Before a scream could emerge from the Elizabeth's throat, it had been slashed open by the creature's claws. Blood gushed forth in heaving floods, forever staining the stones red.

                                                         *******************************

                 188 had watched at the crime scene while the body was taken away. The humans didn't give him a second glance. From what he'd seen in their newspapers, they'd personified the killer as a man in a black top hat and cape, brandishing a knife. And if 188 had learned one thing about humans, it was that they believed what they wanted to.

                  Now he sat on the street, watching people go by. They were clearly scared, even during the day, and that made 188 slightly more cheerful. After all, he hunted them so they'd feel pain instead of him. It took his mind off being trapped on this planet. Besides, humans were just mindless creatures incapable of the simplest task--not really lives.

                'Yes, little humans. You're right to be scared of me. I could kill anyone of you at any time,' he taunted them in his mind.

                But tormenting them only numbed the pain. The knowledge of his predicament always came screaming back. This time, it was in the form of two humans trying to go on with their lives in a city ruled by a murder. One was a young woman; the other was her four year old child.

                The mother stopped to discuss something with a street vendor. She didn't notice her daughter wandering off.

                The little girl caught sight of 188 and headed towards him, unaware that he was dangerous. Her young eyes only saw a cute animal she wanted to touch.

                "Goggie," she babbled.

               188 stared at her. Even he had limits to his bloodlust. This human was just a pup and he had no desire to hurt her.

               "Goggie!" she said again, and ran her little hand over 188's face, scratching behind his ear. Against his wishes, he found his muscles untensing and tail slowly wagging. The little girl giggled, pleased by his reaction. "Good doggie!"  
  


               Suddenly, her mother was back and had snatched her away, scolding her.

                 188 sighed, watching the mother and daughter disappear into the crowds. If he was counting right, 189 had either given birth or was about to by now. And unless the humans suddenly learned a million years worth of knowledge regarding space travel in a day, he wasn't going to be there. Over and over he replayed the "whys" in his mind.

                  _Why wasn't I patient enough to find a cruiser that worked? _

                  _Why wasn't I more careful with the navigation system?_

_                   Why can't I fix that cruiser? Why didn't I ever try and learn how?_

_                    Why didn't I tell her I loved her more often?_

Feeling alone even with dozens of humans around him, 188 slowly ambled along, nose to the ground. He should have been happy on this planet, indulging the bloodlust to his heart's content. Just having the freedom to go wherever he chose should have been fine. It was ironic that all he wanted now was to leave and never return.

Experiment 188 had accomplished his dream of seeing Turo's sun rise.  __

But though he'd walk the earth for decades, he'd never see his own.

                      THE END

            To make a **_very _**long story short, 188 spends the rest of his life (that's between now and Survive the Night) trapped on Earth. And yes, that's over a hundred years. I imagine experiments are like turtles--they won't die of old age. 

            In case you haven't figured it out, 188 is Jack the Ripper. I got the idea from an article in Weekly World News (hey, some of it's pretty funny!) It was about a lot of our unsolved murders being committed by bloodthirsty aliens. The article said that in August of 1888, a month before the Ripper killings, there were lights seen in the sky over England. I know the idea is bull**** like everything else WWN publishes, but it's still kind of cool.

              Finally! It's done! Now I can start working on other stories. One will explain what happened to 189 and the pup. And I'm probably going to do a Jumba/Pleakley one. L&S fics are like pygmy goats. One leads to two and two leads to four and four leads to six… 

            Anyway, I've learned a valuable lesson about not posting stories until I'm finished with them. God, I sound like an after school special.

            I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it. Aloha!

            *Don't ask me why there's one of these in a spaceship. They're universal.

.


End file.
